When I bought a ticket for “An Evening with Neil Gaiman” in Seattle, I was unsure as to what I was buying. Was he just going to read his stuff? Was he going to answer questions? Was he going to talk about his current projects? It turns out the answer was yes to the first two questions and briefly mention the third.
It was different experience because it was just him, alone, on stage in a large hall standing in front of a lectern. While he was introduced by a local radio host and an accordion player, this was all about Neil Gaiman talking to his fans. It was wonderful. He has a warm English accent, and he brought his work to life as he spoke. He read a story from his current book, Norse Mythology, and then several of his different short works. My only complaints about the evening were that some of the questions asked of him were on the generic side, and that I wished he would have gone longer. Apparently I was not the only person who thought that way because we clapped until he came out for an encore.
I am not sure how many authors sell out symphony halls and then get cheered on for just one last story, but believe me when I tell you that it all felt perfectly natural, and I had thought that it would have worked I would have cheered him on for a second encore. It made me wish that we treated more of our authors like rock stars. They fill this world with their creativity, but then we generally ignore them, or tell them they should get back to work because they are not writing fast enough.
If Neil Gaiman should come traipsing around your town, you should go see him. I believe his next stop is Dallas. It was a fun night, and not one that I am going to forget. Now if only he would stop touring around the world and get back to writing. There are novels I need to read that haven’t been written yet.